Keeper of Time Now Lost
by Cheshire Kitten
Summary: Alice remebers the first time she met her friend and mourns his death.


  
**Author note:** A lil' ficcy about Alice and her friendship with the Mad Hatter. Not romance or anything really.. Just friendship and the answer to the Raven and Writing Desk riddle was answered by Lewis Carroll himself. ;) BTW, I finished the fic before I realized that it sounded too much like Yukito-sama's fic, _The End of the Madness_, which is VERY good. Sorry Yukito, I hope ya don't mind it but if it does offend ya in any way, I'll change it. n_n  
  
**Fic is/contains:** Alice's POV. Darkening themes.  
  
**Disclaimers:** Don't own American McGee's Alice in any way.  
  


**Keeper of Time Now Lost.**  
_Your Memory._  
  
Written by: Cheshire Kitten.  


  
  
  
_"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" The Hatter asked, leaning forward over his cup of tea. His dark hair shinning in the golden rays of the afternoon.  
  
"Oh, I know that one.. It--"  
  
"I wasn't asking **you**." Hatter said, interrupting Hare's sentence and looking a bit irritated.  
  
Hare paused, one fluffed ear perking up. "Oh.. Why aren't you asking me?"  
  
Hatter smirked. "You've heard it before."  
  
Hare set his cup down. "But you were looking at me when you said why is a raven--"  
  
Hatter took a deep breath. "**I'm asking Alice!**"  
  
I breathed. "Why is a raven like a writing desk.. I don't know.. I think I'll need some time to think about it."  
  
Hatter seemed quite satisfied with that answer as our conversation led somewhere, which wasn't too interesting to me. I'd almost forgotten about the riddle until..  
  
"Have you guessed the riddle yet?" Hatter asked as he poured more tea into my tiny, white cup.  
  
I shrugged. "I suppose there is no answer."  
  
He gasped. "There is to!"  
  
"Well, I should think that you'd have something better to do with the time than wasting it by asking stupid riddles."  
  
He leaned forward, eyeing me, curiously. "If you knew time as well as I, then you wouldn't talk of wasting **it**. It's a **him**..."  
  
I sighed. "You really are mad.." I whispered to myself.  
_  


~ * ~  


  
Tears ran down my cheeks as the memory became just that.  
  
A memory...  
  
Hatter laid before me, part machine and part man. He was a monster now..  
  
No longer was he the wild character with the riddles that seem to have no answer, cups of tea and tall hats. He's gone.. And the Queen was to blame! She ruined him! I'd rather she decapitated him than turn him into what laid before me now.  
  
I hate to admit it.. but he was weak. The thought of being decapitated was his weakness. He would've done anything to keep from being decapitated.. even if that meant killing me.  
  
I sat there and cried. My tears wet the blood-soaked dirt below my sitting form. I watched him, hoping to bring my friend, partly my rescuer, to life.  
  


~ * ~  


  
_I slept as the smoke filled the air. The Hatter and Hare knew of the fire before I did. Of course, they did. They were protecting me whilst I slept.  
  
"Wake up, Alice! **Wake up**!" Hatter shouted and my eyes opened.  
  
"You must save Alice!" I heard the Hare call out.  
  
Hearing the crackling a moment later, I jumped out of bed and fled to my parent's room. "Mom? Father?!"  
  
"Get out, Alice!" My mother called from beyond her bedroom doors.  
  
I turned around to find the flames and smoke coming up the stairs.  
  
Trapped!  
  
"Save yourself, Alice! Get out of the house!" My father yelled and I obeyed.  
  
I'd gotten into trouble many a time for climbing out my bedroom window but now I had a very good reason. I leapt out the window with my stuffed rabbit clutched to me, protectively.   
  
Once outside, I fell asleep in the snow, then I was taken to Dreamland where the Hatter, Hare, Dormouse and myself had tea. I'd forgotten all about the fire until I was snatched awake by some police.. or perhaps some witnesses, I wasn't sure. They dragged me away from the fire as the memory rush back to me, making me cry out in pain.  
  
I was always protected and spare while my family upstairs roasted in an inferno of incredible horror.  
_  


~ * ~  


  
"Hatter.. You saved me. I only wish I could've done the same, friend.."  
  
He laid motionless. His dark eyes remained opened, shinning as blood ran down them like tears. He_ did_ cry, the blood streaks mixed with clear liquid. His black cloths were torn from my Vorpal blade's stabs. His hat had fallen from his hair when the final blow hit him. His hair was darker and quite long now. It was tangled as if he'd forgotten to take care of it. His eyes were cold with no curiosity and humor left in them. He was frightfully pale, even before his death. He hated me.  
  
Wait..  
  
I wonder..  
  
_Does_ he still hate me? Now that he's dead, he's freed from this twisted madness.. No, I don't think he never really hated me at all. I think it probably _did_ hurt him to wound me. For this, I'm sorry.. but.. it was me or him who had to fall. I must save this world and all my friends..  
  
"That's right."  
  
I spun around to see Cheshire staring at me. "It's time to go, Alice."  
  
I nodded, clutching my Vorpal blade close. "Very well.. Just a few more moments, Cheshire Cat."  
  
"Very well. Call me when you're ready to depart, which should be very soon!" He faded, his eyes the last to leave.  
  
I turned back to my fallen friend. I sniffed and stroked his tangled hair. "I only hope you don't hate me, Hatter... I **had** to do this.. In a way, I suppose you ought to thank me for your release. I'm sure I'll see you in Dreamland someday again.. Oh, and I've found the answer to your riddle."  
  
I smiled, my tears staining my cheeks with their trails. "Wh.. Why is a raven like a writing desk? It makes notes, although they're very flat and.. and it can never be turned backwards... There's your answer." I wiped my tears. "I do hope it's the right one.."  
  
Thunder split the darkening sky of gray.  
  
It's going to rain soon..  
  


~ * ~  


  
_I stood up, having been fed up with their insane ways. "This is the most stupidest tea party I've ever been to!" I snapped as I turned to walk away.  
  
"Then you shouldn't think, just hummm." Hatter said, placing a spoon in the sugar bowl.  
  
I tossed my shoulder-length, red hair out of my face. "I don't think I'm ever coming back here again! ..And besides," I said, looking at the sky, then back to Hatter. "..it's going to rain soon.."  
  
"It never rains but it pours." Hatter said, then went to work with helping Hare push the very sleepy Dormouse into the tiny teapot._  
  


~ * ~  


  
I smiled, remembering his familiar words before I left our first tea party.  
  
"Yes, I best be going, I've others to meet and a Wonderland to save."  
  
I was hoping to have him smile in return like I was so used to when I left him but no smile came. I sighed. "Get well and return soon, old friend. Now I.. I only hope Dormouse and Hare are well."  
  
I lowered my head and placed a soft kiss on his damp cheek.  
  
Wiping at my eyes again, I stood up and walked away. I watched the wind send tiny hurricanes of sand over him and pull at his clothing, hoping to lift him from his dirty grave where he laid. I stepped over his cane, the shinny handle broken and the ending's blade twisted in an odd shape. Fragile tea cups laid shattered here and there. Tea had soaked into the ground and was drying by now, the fumes gone from them.  
  
I fell on my knees and picked up a piece of the white glass. Cheshire Cat appeared before me, whiskers twitching. "What's wrong, are you not done?"  
  
"Everyone I love dies, violently. Unnaturally. I'm cursed! Why go on?! I'll just hurt others!"  
  
"What choice do you have?!"  
  
Cheshire was right. I dropped the broken tea cup and found my Vorpal blade still in my hand, tight. I walked away, letting Cheshire Cat lead me out of the torn battle arena and to my unwanted destiny.  
  
The one who made my friend what he was.  
  
The Queen of Hearts.  
  
"_Off with her head_!"  
  
I shuddered.  
  
  
  
**Author note:** I know it's probably kinda lame but I was bored and wrote this while listening to my McGee's Alice soundtrack.. and my computer needed a new modem. :)  



End file.
